CSIS Disappears More Public Reports
Last summer I reported that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had removed most of its previous annual reports from its public website. Aside from the increasing penchant for secrecy…
Military and Intelligence
Timeline of Government Dishonesty on the F-35 Jet Fighter
This is how the government officially responds to the Parliamentary Budgetary Officer’s accusation that they kept “two sets of books” on the true cost the F-35 jet fighter: Fonberg told…
Let’s Do the Time Warp Again
So, as you may have heard by now, the new line from the Harper regime is that we can’t trust the NDP because they voted against World War II. Even…
The True Cost of the F-35: $48.7 Billion
Something needs to be said about this business of the government “hiding” $10 billion in costs on the F-35, suggesting the cost was only $15 billion when it was “really”…
Auditor-General Picks Door No. 2
By which I mean, in reference to my yesterday’s post, that Auditor-General Michael Ferguson pulled every punch he could in coming out with a report basically accusing the military of…
Major Test for the Auditor General Tomorrow
Tomorrow, one of two things will be reported by the Auditor General of Canada: that the minister is responsible for misleading Canadians about the procurement process of the F-35, or…
It’s Too Bad We Live in a Nation of Incompetent Journalists…
… because if we didn’t, maybe one of them would rouse themselves long enough to ask how one person can make both of the following statements about the F-35 and…
Government Already Lying About New Audit That Hasn’t Even Been Published Yet?
Okay, before I go on, let me just say that this has become commonplace under the Harper regime. Nevertheless, the rest of the media is sagely playing dumb about the…
Justice in the American Jungle, Part 2
When we last left off, CIA agent John Kiriakou was leaving his job after apparently feeling some remorse over his role in the commission of abduction, illegal confinement, and war…
Justice in the American Jungle, Part 1
The story which follows is drawn from a charge laid in an American court a week or so ago. One of the themes of this blog is that the rule…
Harper Regime Sends Important Torture Commission Report Down Memory Hole
This week, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with the Harper regime that several Canadian citizens detained and tortured in developing countries based on advice passed to the Americans from…
Peter MacKay Takes Personal Control of Canada’s Most Secret Spy Agency
You may or may not have heard of the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s most secretive and (for most of its history) non-legal spy agency. You also may or may not…
Globe and Mail Has No Right to be Disappointed on Abdelrazik File
Today, the Globe and Mail is upset that the Harper regime failed to help Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik get off the UN blacklist that prevents him from travelling, holding a…
Okay, so which members of the Security Intelligence Committee AREN’T amateurs?
The National Post has a column by self-declared former Mossad officer Michael Ross complaining that he cannot understand how we could allow someone with dubious ties to an international lobbyist…
John Ivison and the Case for a Canadian Foreign Intelligence Agency
Today’s example of a woefully uninformed journalist spouting off on a subject of crucial national importance is John Ivison, whose Monday column in the National Post is what presently passes…
Military Plans to Eliminate Subsidies to Academic Hawks
Rumours have abounded since last year that the military is planning to planning to abolish a subsidy program called the Security and Defence Forum, which funds about a dozen university…
Peter MacKay: We Should Go Back to Rupert’s Land and New France
Before I go on, let me just say that this is a second-page story right now. It’s dismally predictable that this is attracting more attention that another issue which I…
Everything About the Shipbuilding Plan Feels Wrong
Frequent readers will know there is no love lost between me and the professional media, but their treatment of the naval shipbuilding plan has been abhorrent even by their usual…
CSIS Director Richard Fadden Is Responsible for Latest Abdelrazik Slur
The simultaneous attempts at name-clearing by Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik, who was illegally detained and tortured by the Sudanese government at the request of the Canadian government, and Moroccan citizen…
Griffin Helicopter Inquiry Report Shows Excesses of Government Secrecy
You may have noticed in what passes for “news” the announcement that the Canadian Forces has completed its inquiry into the crash of a Griffon helicopter crash in Afghanistan in…